Said The Blind Man
by thisvexesme
Summary: Summer camp sucks. Especially when you're sent to a 'disabled kids' camp because you're blind. Fox Alistair hates that he's been sent away and tries his best to ignore everyone. Lucky for him, he meets the once person who can't bother him with constant talking and teasing...
1. Chapter 1

I hated this stupid summer camp. I'm not ' _disabled',_ I'm just visually impaired. I can still speak English, I can still walk, I can still exist as a normal, functioning member of society without aide. I just, like, can't see the society.

When I was nine months old, I said my first word. It was 'mama'.

When I was thirteen months old, I took my first unassisted step.

When I was four years old I learned to ride a bicycle. I mean, not _well,_ but I learned how to balance and pedal.

When I was ten I learned how to play the recorder. That's not an accomplishment, but I thought I'd throw that in anyways.

I even had a girlfriend once, back in eighth grade. Though, now that I think about it, it feels a lot like she was taking pity on me. Most people do. They pity me. It's always ' _do you need help across the street'_ this and ' _do you want me to describe what's going on_ ' that and it's always bullshit. I hate it. It makes me feel useless. I get exempt from gym class every year because the teachers think I'll get hurt or some nonsense like that. Like, there's plenty of things I can do that are sporting. I don't want to just sit in health class alone for seventy minutes while everyone else gets to play.

Like _running,_ for instance. I can run, and I like to run. Yatsu showed me how keep pace with someone by touching elbows and matching gate, so we go out every morning to have a little brother bonding time and keep in shape. I tried with Scarlet that once during class and some dick sitting on the side of the track decided it would be funny to trip me. If only I could see, I think I would have beat his ass into next week.

Apparently I'm easy to pick on, since I can't do anything about it. Funny thing is, I can still _hear_ the bad things people say about me. I'm not immune to teasing.

"C'mon, man, just paddle."

I would have whipped my head around to glare at him, but again. No point.

"Shut up, Scarlet."

"Look, all we have to do is make it over there, then you can get out and, I dunno, find a rock to mope on."

"I have no concept of where 'over there' is, you idiot."

"You know what, you get my point. Just paddle in a straight line. I can't be doing all the work."

I angrily dug my paddle in and pulled us forward. I could feel the boat start to twist to the left.

"Geez, okay, uh less power, more like this, see?"

"I see."

"Good, okay n- wait. You dick."

I snorted to myself. Now, I know what you're thinking. ' _Uh, how does Scarlet get to be at camp with you, he's not disabled'._ Well, how do you think I met him? That's right, the 'therapy' class we 'disabled' kids had to go to in grades nine through eleven. Because he _is_ disabled. Just not obviously. He was born without the muscles around his heart, so instead he has a machine do the hard work for him. Sharing a tent with him is a real treat with that constant dull clicking that can't be turned off. Sometimes, when I'm still up because of the noise, I feel like I want to strangle him. But I'm sure he feels the same way about me sometimes.

"I'd stab you in the eyes if you weren't already blind."

"Yeah, me too. Then I wouldn't have to look at your ugly face."

"You don't even know what my face looks like."

"Ugly."

He laughed from over my shoulder. "Jackass."

The difference between Scarlet and I was our approaches to our problems. He was always a go-getter, a happy-go-lucky kinda guy. He didn't let his disability get him down, and I could commend that. My problem was that _other_ people used _my_ disability to bring _me_ down. And I didn't like that. But I dealt with it. Scarlet helped a lot.

We hit the dock. Someone wasn't paying attention. And he was right, by the time we made it out of the canoe with him helping me basically the entire way out, I really just wanted somewhere I could sit and listen to music without being bothered. Lucky for me, the end of the dock was the perfect place for such an occasion. With all the other campers already ashore and in the process of setting up their tents by this time, no one would bother me if I stepped away and ignored them all. Scarlet would build our tent for us. You know, on account of how I couldn't _see the damn thing._

He took our bags and ascended the hill to the camp as I sat carefully down on the end of the rather long and rickety dock, hanging my legs over the edge. I'd left my cane in the canoe, so that was a mistake. And now it was up on shore, so I'd need his help walking to camp anyways. Oh well, shit happens.

Lucky for me, I had my iPod with me, tucked into my pocket, which _thankfully_ did not fall into the water as I pulled my life jacket off. I slipped my earphones up over my ears. Yeah, so my hearing was all I had left to experience the world around me, and by golly, I was gonna interrupt that with music. If anyone from the camp wanted to talk to me, they could shove it. It was Brahms time. Little bit of G Minor for me today.

I like music. I don't know why I do, but I do. It's... perceptive. I won't feed you any bullshit about how I can _see_ with sound or anything like that, because that's not true. Same way that blind people don't touch faces to see what people look like, that's just as nonsense as the ability to regain sight through prayer or homeopathic remedies. All garbage.

I like music just because I do. I can't see colour, I might as well hear sound. And _good_ sound. Besides, with my headphones on, nobody ever bothers me because they know better than to sneak up on the blind kid who can't see them coming. David learned that lesson the hard way when I elbowed him in the eye by accident the last time he snuck up on me. So I had at _least_ forty-five minutes of silence from the god-awful camp before anyone would come looking for me. I lay back, swinging my feet over the edge so my toes brushed the water. It was nice.

For a bit.

Until I could feel the dock start to sway, the telltale sign of someone walking on it. The footfalls grew closer until they stopped right at my head. Funny, it didn't feel like Scarlet or David. The gait was shorter, narrower, with a defined skip of the heel. Very feminine. Not quite like Gwen, the other counsellor, since she was tall and walked in steel-toe hiking boots everywhere. No, this was in sneakers. They, whoever they were, sounded and felt short. I sighed. I couldn't see it, but I _knew_ they were leaning over me at the moment, trying to figure out who the depressive loner on the dock was. I pulled off my headphones and tried to give an angry glare to where I imagined their face was.

"Can I help you?"

Nothing. Silence. Weird.

"If you're just gonna stand there and say nothing, do it to someone else. I have music to listen to."

Again, nothing. I was annoyed. I hated when people would just hover around me, but this was ridiculous. Not just around me, actually _over_ me. Ugh.

Whoever it was chose this moment to turn heel and bolt, rocking the crummy old dock with every hard step they made. I sighed and pulled on my headphones again, the sweet sounds of my Hungarian Dance in F Major, this time, coming strongly through the ear pieces. The weird person didn't return at any time in the next long while, and I was pleasantly okay with that. Neither did Scarlet, though, so I'm not sure he was having any luck with our tent. Eh, I was patient. Been patient my whole life.

I just don't have patience for ignorant people, like whoever decided standing over a blind kid was a good idea. And then not even say anything? Sheesh.

By the time my CD had finished, I could feel that the air had gone down in temperature by a reasonably significant amount, which meant that the sun had gone down past the trees to what everyone else considered 'sunset'. I dunno about them, it's _always_ dark. Well, _without._ Not exactly anything to compare to, so.

It was around eight or so when Scarlet came to find me on the dock, where his dumbass _stomped_ his boots onto the dock right next to my head. I already knew he was there, of course, but I pretended for his sake, feigning shock and annoyance as he tried to surprise me.

"The hell, dude?" I 'yelled' up at him. "You _know_ I can't see you coming!"

"Sorry, man. Just thought I'd let you know it's dinner time."

"I ate before we got in the boat."

"There's hot dogs."

I sat up. I guess that was a good enough reason. With some help on the rickety dock, I was able to get back up to dry land. Even without the 'gift' of sight, I could tell that the rest of the campers were congregated around the makeshift fire pit that would have been created by the counsellors upon landfall. And now, by the heat waves and smoke that it was giving off, I could make my way over to it with only minimal assistance from my asshat friend.

By the time I had slowly lowered myself onto a felled log, which had taken probably three or four minutes of fussing to make sure no one had pranked me, the chill in the air was ever present, cutting around the warmth of the fire and through my bare arms. I wish I had my hoodie, but it was in my pack, probably in our tent at this point. I wasn't interested in going to get that after taking all that effort in just sitting down. I'd just have to deal with the chill.

"Fox, put your hand out."

I didn't want to, but with the prospect of good food on the table, I was willing to take that chance on the possibility Scarlet might hand me a non-food item. Like a wet stick like he'd done on day one, the jerk. So when the actual hot dog was presented to me, char-broiled to a crispy deliciousness, I felt like I could probably trust him some more. I took a bite, enjoying the copious amount of relish _somebody_ remembered that I liked.

"Hey man, I think you have an admirer." Scarlet said quietly in my ear.

"Shcuze me?" I said, mouth full of relish and bun.

He chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder, whispering "Yeah, there's this cute girl givin' you the eyes from across the fire."

"I don't know what that looks like, Scar." I whispered back.

"What, ' _the eyes_ ' or the cute girl?"

"Both, idiot."

"Heh. Well, ' _the eyes'_ is when-"

"Not gonna help, just be quiet. And give me another wiener."

"What, she's totally checking you ou- ah, shit she noticed."

"So?"

There was a pause where I imagined he was turning to give me an incredulous look. The same one I would give him whenever he would use ' _see what I mean'_ in conversation.

"It means she's left the fire pit and retreated back to the tents, dude. And her cute friend went with her, so now we're down two campers."

"Sounds like and advantage."

"How is the loss of two cute chicks an advantage?!"

I held up my hot dog.

"More food for me, someone who can't appreciate 'cute'."

Another presumed incredulous look. "You're never gonna let me have anything, are you."

"Nope."

"Wanker."

I twisted my face over to him and did my best glare.

"You know..." he started. "That would be a lot more intimidating if you actually had pupils."

I chuckled. Dick.

After another two hours of lame ghost stories and bad campfire songs, it was time for bed. Ghost stories don't work on blind people since we can't be fooled into false senses of endangerment by the 'flashlight under the chin' trick that Scarlet is a particular fan of. We also have no sense of what a little green alien would even look like, so if ever I was abducted by one I would probably just roll with it since they don't physically frighten me. The whole time Gwen was telling us stories, David was trying his best to sneak around behind us and scare us with jump scares, but an acute sense of hearing put a quick stop to that nonsense.

Scarlet and I made it to our tent, with him complaining the whole time about not being able to see the terrain and tripping like an idiot. Now he knows how I feel on the damn daily. Jerk. As I tucked myself into my sleeping bag, I thought a bit about what he said. I didn't know what it meant for someone to 'check out' someone else. It didn't mean like what a cashier does at the grocery store when you're done shopping, and it didn't mean that you had a cheque hanging out of your pocket or anything like that. I tried to imagine what someone's eyes did when that happened. I imagine not as dramatic and obvious as I was thinking of presently, with the deep bowing and scanning of the whole body. But probably more like a subtle up-and-down, looking away occasionally before glancing back over.

I dunno.

As I fell asleep, I drifted away thinking that sighted people were weird in the way they looked at one another. I just didn't get it.

Sleep came.

/.../

And sleep went.

Mornings as a blind person are weird. There's no real distinction between what sleeping and being awake 'looks' like, since there is no such thing as 'looking' for me. It just goes from abstract 'physical' sensations to concrete feelings and sounds that mean you're awake. It's about as weird an experience as you can imagine, but after seventeen years, I've just kinda gotten used to it at this point.

"Fox, buddy, it's time to wake up."

It wasn't Scarlet, but David, the bane of my existence. I knew he was trying his best to be helpful to every camper, but it was the overly excitable _way_ that he did it that just dug in and made me feel weird. He was a good guy, sure, just uncomfortably happy all the time. Like, just calm the heck down.

"I don't feel like it."

"It's activity day. You love activity day!"

"When did I ever give you that impression, David?"

"Just c'mon and put some effort in, Fox. We've got two months left here, you need to find something to do."

"I'm convinced I don't have to."

"Just get up and have some fun, buddy."

He picked up my cane and tossed it to me. Unfortunately for the both of us, it unfolded halfway between his hand and my sleeping bag, wedging itself between the two sides of the tent like a limbo bar, creating a hazard for anyone walking through the tent. Well, you couldn't really walk in the tent, but it _was_ wedged and that was annoying. I heard the tent flap flutter shut, meaning either David had left completely or was politely giving me privacy, and since I couldn't hear his footfalls departing, I assumed the latter.

"I hate this place."

Finally un-wedging my cane and re-folding it, I got up and got dressed into our dumb camp uniform. Which was less 'uniform' and more 'uncomfortable golf shirt and whatever shorts you wanted', so we were given at least _some_ choice. When I finally left my tent, I was right, and David was patiently waiting for me. I didn't have my blackout glasses with me, having foolishly left them at home, so while everyone else was wearing shades, I looked like a fool who didn't want to protect his retinas. Heh, what retinas.

"So! What do you want to do today?"

I flipped my cane out, slamming the knob into the soil with a huff.

"Have breakfast, then ignore everyone."

"What about some art? We could set you up with an easel-"

"No."

I moved away from my tent. David followed like an obedient puppy.

"Come on, it would be nice if you did! The art club is always looking for new members, and I'm sure we have an extra mixing board and some paints for you."

"I don't know what colour is, David. How am I supposed to paint?"

"You don't have to know how to paint. The famous Turkish painter Eşref Armağan was born without eyes and he was able to paint beautiful pieces with no reference whatsoever!"

I shrugged.

"I'm not famous Turkish painter Eşref Armağan, now am I?"

"Wasn't my point, but alright. Uh, how about you and Scarlet go canoeing?"

"Scarlet's doing rock climbing."

"You and I, then?"

"You have a camp to look after."

"Gwen's got it."

I sighed, stopping and 'looking' down at my feet.

"What do you want from me, David?"

His hand found my shoulder, gripping down to try and comfort me.

"To have fun here, Fox."

"This is a summer camp, David. We're supposed to experience the environment visually. Not something I'm capable of."

"Tally's blind. She's an accomplished sculptor. Why don't you hang out with her?"

"She wasn't born blind, she knows what stuff looks like and _also_ _what colour is_."

"You're intent on not having fun."

"Yup."

"If you don't like anything here, what _do_ you like?"

"Music. Peace and quiet. Cornflakes. None of which I'm getting right now."

"What about puzzles games? Do you like puzzles?"

I exhaled gruffly through my nose, hoping he'd catch on. I mean, I _did_ like word puzzles and mindbenders, but not very many Mensa books are printed in Braille.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Then I think I have something for you."

"Is any of it cornflakes?"

"Just come with me, I'll bring you breakfast."

Thank you, David. I let him guide me around the camp to where the picnic tables had been set up for us to eat lunch on sometime in the early morning. I had been kept awake by the sounds of the drill, which might have been ignorable by most people, just not me. When we reached them, I sat myself down and folded my cane onto the table.

"Okay, now what?"

"Okay, I'll go get you your cornflakes, then I'll be back. I have to figure out how to use the Brailler again, and I have to get the radios."

I shrugged. "Alright."

And that's what he did, taking twenty minutes to go and come back with some cereal and a _glass bottle_ of chilled milk like I was some kind of royalty. Nice to me treated as such some of the time. The heavy radio thumped down onto the table in front of me, and so did two small devices. As he was fussing with the Brailler, I examined the one placed before me. It was a wooden board, no bigger than my hand, with a brass rocker button on it and a foam pad which I assumed was for my wrist. It was like an antiquated Brailler but only with one button. Just as I had a moment to play with the little device, A plastic sheet was slid over to my hand.

"Here, can you read this?"

I could feel the bumps along the surface. A sheet of Braille, fresh off the press. I was impressed by his speed, since even my parents couldn't type that fast on a Brailler after this many years.

"Uh, yeah. But I don't get it, it's just the alphabet and the words 'dot' and 'dash' a bunch of times."

He chuckled.

"That's right, it is. You know they don't actually make a Braille to Morse conversion page for camp use?"

I was blown away. "This is _Morse code?"_

"Yup. Figured you might be good at it. It's just like Braille, only in a line instead of in a square."

I nodded, taking in a few of the letters. I could read that he had replaced the pictographs of the lines and dots with the words representing them, but I understood what he was getting at. The little device under my hand was the coding device, meant to express and relay the information. Perhaps that was what the radio was for. I wondered who I might talk to.

"This is neat. Like an electronics history project."

"Thought you might like a little bit of a challenge."

He was right.

"So who am I talking to?"

"No one yet. You'll be listening in, though."

"Okay."

"There's two weather watch stations up in the mountains about forty kilometres northwest and due east of here that like to communicate with one another using modified HAM radios that output Morse signals. Your job will be to interpret what they're saying and relay it to us so we can know what the day's weather is."

"That's pretty neat."

"I thought so. I know a little Morse myself, but not enough to hold any kind of conversation. The guys up in the towers apparently talk for hours about stuff and play mind puzzles with one another. Eventually you'll be able to as well."

"Can I talk back to them?"

"You can, but please don't. They are weather stations, and they are in charge of watching the valley, so."

"Okay, don't mess with the marshals, got it."

"Excellent! Now, before you start interpreting them, I think you two should learn to interpret each other."

"Sounds goo- wait, what do you mean 'you two'?"

"Oh, sorry, it completely slipped my mind, your partner."

"The radio?"

"No, no, your table partner." he paused with a chuckle. "This is Neo. She'll be your second interpreter. So you don't have to do this alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I said, turning my 'gaze' across the table to where I logically assumed another person would be sitting. "I didn't realize I wasn't alone. My name's Fox."

"Oh, sorry, she can't understand you."

"Excuse me?"

"She's deaf. She can't hear you or speak to you. Neo, why don't you say hi?"

There was a pause. Then, the radio on the table started making some noises. First, four consecutive beeps, then two consecutive beeps.

"Very funny, Neo, nice of you to be literal."

"Wait, how can you talk to- right, sign language."

"Put your hand out."

I did. Then out of nowhere, a very soft, very lithe hand fell into mine and shook it, and very daintily so. I was almost shocked by the sudden touch.

"...jeez."

"I'll leave you to it. Try saying hello. If you need me, just holler. Oh, and be short and concise with your sentences. Makes it easier to translate."

"Thanks, David."

He left. I followed the sound of his feet as they retreated back to the main camp. I could hear some other campers playing a game of footy over in a clearing a ways off.

"Uh, hi."

Silence. Right, of course. She was deaf. And now my interpreter had left, leaving me awkwardly sitting at a table with a deaf girl and no way to communicate. Well, that wasn't true. There was a Morse code machine sitting between us. I guess trial by fire it is.

"Okay, so..."

I traced the conversion page for letters. H was somewhere. I tried my luck.

 _H...E...L...L...O_

There was a pause, as I no doubt she was trying to convert it to text. A message started to come back to me. It started as the same pattern she'd used before, but it was followed by five segments I didn't know. I strained to try and remember all of them, but it was a lot even with her pausing for a good second or two between letters. I spun my wrist to try and get her to do the pattern again, which she clearly understood because it came through again.

 _HI THERE_

I almost laughed out loud. This was gonna be both a fun _and_ hilarious way of spending time.

"The blind man and the deaf woman. What a joke."

A _good_ joke, though. I read through my sheet again, searching desperately for letters.

 _MY NAME FOX_

I tried to be as concise as possible. It was hard to focus on the letters individually as their constituents instead of as whole words like you could with regular typing. It wasn't just one keystroke now, it was up to four. This was messing with my head. The beeps came through again, but slower. She could tell this _was_ my first rodeo, and she was being considerate. I didn't have the luxury of being able to _see_ the conversion chart.

 _YOU CAVE MAN_

I was, as you might expect, taken a little aback.

"Excuse me?"

I fought with the paper again, making a questioning face as I clicked my response since there's no punctuation in Morse.

 _EXCUSE ME_

She typed back. Still slowly. She obviously had a mildly tighter grasp of this than I did.

 _YOU FORGOT A WORD YOU SOUND LIKE A CAVEMAN_

Such a long string of words was almost lost on me. Almost. I have reasonably good pattern recognition skills and good retention, a skill required for reading Braille. So I was able to keep up enough to realize that she had just _sassed_ me. In Morse! This was not okay.

 _DAVID SAID TO BE CONYHS_

I messed up royal, letting my hand slip on the button. She noticed. Obviously.

 _WHAT_

Ugh.

 _CONCISE_

 _OH WHY_

 _DUNNO_

The series of patterns wasn't difficult to remember after a while, as Morse doesn't really have characters that can be confused for one another, save for E, H, I, and S which are all just dots. We sort of agreed on a one second pause between letters and a two second pause between words to make sure we could be understood. It got pretty easy, as speed-reading my Braille sheet was my speciality.

 _WHAT ARE YOU AT CAMP FOR_

I asked, trying to make conversation.

 _MY PARENTS SAID I NEEDED TO MAKE FRIENDS_

That was conveniently the same reason as I was here.

 _SAME MY PARENTS THINK SCARLET ISNT ENOUGH_

 _TWOS ENOUGH XD_

It took a moment to realize she was using an emoji with Morse text, to which I proceeded to actually laugh out loud.

 _BUT I ONLY HAVE SCARLET SO FAR_

 _GASP AM I NOT YOUR FRIEND_

Quick witted _and_ sassy? I wondered what she'd be like if she could talk.

 _I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU_

 _MY NAME NEO_

"Pfft."

I grinned down at my hand on the button.

 _NOW WHO CAVEMAN_

 _IM A GIRL DUH_

 _TELL ME MORE_

 _NO YOU FIRST 8C_

"8-C?" It took me a second. "Oh, you're frowning at me. Wow, this is absurd."

I didn't quite know what to say, so I thought I'd start at the beginning.

 _I WAS BORN BLIND IM 17 I LIKE RUNNING_

 _HOW DO YOU NOT FALL_

 _HOLDING MY BROTHERS ELBOW_

 _NEAT_

 _WHAT ABOUT YOU_

 _I WAS BORN DEAF IM 17 TOO I LIKE SWIMMING_

So we had some things in common. Born with our defects, around the same time, and we both liked physical activities. I could build a friendship on this, yeah.

 _I CAN SWIM WITH A LIFEJACKET_

 _DOESNT COUNT_

 _SURE IT DOES_

 _NOPE_

"How is it possible that you can sass me without any tone, this is bullshit." I chuckled to myself.

 _UGH FINE_

 _DO YOU LIKE ICE CREAM_

Who doesn't?

 _YES I LIKE MINT CHIP BEST_

 _I DONT LIKE THE COLOUR OF MINT CHIP_

I frowned.

 _I DONT KNOW WHAT COLOUR IT IS_

 _GREEN_

"Perhaps I should clarify."

 _I DONT KNOW WHAT COLOUR IS_

 _YOU HAVENT LOOKED HARD ENOUGH_

"Feel like I have." I sassed back aloud.

 _WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM_

 _MOOSE TRACKS_

 _NEVER HAD IT_

 _THEY HAVE IT AT COMMISSARY_

 _ILL HAVE TO TRY SOME AT LUNCH_

 _OR WE COULD SNEAK IN AND STEAL IT_

I leaned back on the bench, surprised. Now _that_ was an idea I would never have considered.

 _OR WE COULD WAIT UNTIL LUNCH TIME_

 _NAH NO FUN_

My wrist was starting to hurt from the awkward angle I had to hold it at to operate the button. I still laughed at her absurd suggestion.

 _DAVID WILL GET MAD_

 _YOU DONT LIKE DAVID_

"No, that's fair."

"What's fair?"

" _JESUS."_ I nearly jumped out of my skin. David had appeared next to me on the bench. "What the hell, David? Don't just sneak up on a blind guy, that's not cool!"

He laughed. "Sorry kiddo, I thought you'd have heard me. Anyway, it's lunch time and then we're going on a hike as a group. Sound good?"

"It's lunch time already?"

"You guys have been here for like two hours."

I guess typing, reading, interpreting and conversing in Morse was a lot longer of a process than either of us realized.

"Oh, damn. Can we come back to this after?"

"Of course. C'mon."

He stood up and waited for me to do so. Halfway through the process of standing, Neo knocked on the table to get my attention. I turned back to show I was listening. She beeped out another message.

 _LUNCH WITH ME_

I smiled and reached back down to my pad.

 _BE GLAD TO_


	2. Chapter 2

I was awoken, by a sharp jabbing in the ribs. I coughed, being roused from my excellent sleep was not how I wanted to start today. Or any day, for that matter. If it was Scarlet, he was gonna die. A very horrible, painful death as I squeezed the very life from his bones, one drop of blood at a time. Hemoglobin couldn't save you this time, my friend. Although, it didn't really feel like Scarlet's hands doing the jabbing. The fingers were too small and too pointy. Like David's delicate lady fingers.

Well, I guess I'd have to kill him instead. I didn't mind that one bit. Meant I could probably sleep in longer, which suited me quite a lot. I growled and rolled over.

"David, I swear to god I'm going to skin you alive."

No response came. Or at least, no _verbal_ response came. Instead, only the sound and feeling of my sleeping bag being unzipped.

"Wait, David-"

Before I could react, the frigid air of the clearly _very, very_ early morning grabbed me like a bear in it's teeth and bit down with lethal force.

"Aaa-AAHH!" I yelled, as the warm sweet embrace of my sleeping bag was suddenly opened up on me. I bolted upright, my arms coiling up around me to try and salvage some amount of heat that was being quickly lost through my naked upper half. "It's so _cold!"_

My tentmate awoke at this time.

"Dude, why are you so loud, man?" he asked, from over my shoulder.

"Somebody's in the tent!" I yelled.

"Yeah, we are, you moron."

"SOMEONE ELSE, SCARLET!" I gestured to the corner. "OVER THERE I THINK!"

I could hear him fumbling around for the lantern. So apparently it was before dawn so there was no light. Not that _I_ needed it. There was a click.

"What are you- _OH,_ woah!" he exclaimed, falling backwards.

"Scarlet?"

"Yeah there's someone in here. It's a girl!"

"What does she look like?"

"What does that matter to you?"

"Screw you, who is it?!" I demanded.

"Uh, the d-deaf girl. What's her name."

I perked up, turning back to where I thought she was. "Neo?"

"I don't know, maybe. I don't know her name."

"Is she really short?"

"How would you know?!"

"Answer the question, Scarlet."

"How many deaf girls do we have here?"

"Uh..."

I became acutely aware that I didn't have a shirt on in the presence of a lady. My hands came up to cover my shameful skinny upper body. I was suddenly envious of the sighted. Knowing Neo, she wasn't making even the slightest effort to not look at me.

"I dunno, probably just the one. And maybe her friend, Monika." I turned myself towards Scarlet's side of the tent. "But I don't think she's deaf. Hand me my shirt, please."

"Oh is that her name?" a lump of cloth hit me in the stomach. I unfolded it and pulled it on. "Wait, she's got something in her hand."

The sounds of paper being handed from one to another crinkled through the tent. Evidently she'd had something to say but couldn't. For obvious reasons.

"Uh, it's a note for you, dude."

"Right, because I can read suddenly."

He sighed.

"It says ' _Fox_ _, it's time to go listen to the weather report, get dressed.'_ Sounds like you and her have stuff to do."

"Tell her I said no."

"I don't know sign language, you tell her."

"Write it down!"

"I don't have a pen! Do you have one?"

"What use would I have for a pen?!"

"TO WRITE STUFF DOWN!"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT LETTERS ARE!"

I heard him slap his hand over his face and groan. Not my fault he keeps forgetting that I can't write. Or draw. Or hold a pen. I guess he found one since the next sounds were of scribbling on the paper. There was a short exchange as the paper was passed back and forth.

More scribbling.

"She says you don't have a choice."

"I always have a choice. And I choose to go back to sleep."

Scribbling.

"You'd deny me when I'm so cute?"

"Yes. I don't know what cute looks like. So that one's ineffective on me."

Scribbling again.

"Why don't you touch me and find out?"

"Jesus Christ, Scarlet. No! I'm not into you!"

"Hey, I'm just reading what's on the page. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Jesus Christ, Neo. Alright fine. I'll get out of bed. Tell her to give me a minute to change."

More scribbling.

"You have one minute. Strip."

"Both of you get the hell out."

Scarlet laughed as he got up and slid past me, unzipping the tent flap and climbing out. I listened for his footsteps, hearing what sounded like a second set following him back into the morning air. The tent flap was zipped shut again, leaving me hopefully alone. Since I wasn't fully convinced, I grabbed my cane from above my pillow, unfolded it, and did a once-over of the room, touching the ground in a circle.

"Okay, I think I'm safe."

Or at least I hoped. I dunno, maybe girls can float or something and she was still in the tent. Well that was just too bad for me, then. I was paranoid, but for good reason of course. When you can't see you start to develop the thought that everyone is watching you, even if no one is immediately in your vicinity. Neo seemed like the kind of person who'd take any opportunity to loom around and be mysterious just for the laughs.

I quickly changed, grabbing some underwear and denim pants and pulling them on quickly. Even without sight I could still operate in confined spaces if I knew where my stuff was. I threw on a cotton shirt and the camp's branded 'yellow' hoodie. Didn't matter what colour it was to me, but everyone else complained that it 'clashed' with their outfits and didn't match anything they owned. Tally came to me early on and tried to make the joke that we'd look good in them anyways, but this was when I was still salty about being here. So the joke hadn't worked. I appreciate her effort in hindsight, though.

Heh. Hind _sight._

"Arright, I'm up." I groaned, weaseling my way forward to the tent flap. My knees dragged over Scarlet's backpack and knocked it over, spilling his clothes and his water bottle onto the canvas floor. Hey, I told him not to put his stuff in front of the door the last time. His fault now.

I pulled the zipper up to let myself out of of the tent, feeling the harsh chill of the pre-morning air force its way into the openings of my sweater. My shoes were waiting for me just over the lip, and I stepped into them and stood all the way up, my back crackling and popping as I now had the space to stretch properly. I can bet you that I didn't look so good doing it, but I didn't care what people thought of how I looked. Everyone looked the same to _me,_ so.

Scarlet approached. "She's waiting for you up there."

"Up where?" I yawned, using my cane to support a little of my weight.

"By the picnic tables. You need me to walk you up?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I got it. Thanks, though."

"Right, I'm going back to bed."

"Sorry you had to wake up to that."

"Pfft, doesn't matter to me, dude. She's all yours."

I swung my hand, smacking him in the stomach. "Don't be like that."

"Hey, I'm just teasing." he laughed, climbing back in the tent. "Maybe she likes you or something."

"Doubt it. This is clearly for research purposes. Go back inside, dummy."

The zipper closed with a muffled chuckle. Asshat. What did he know about women. Granted, what did _I_ know about women. I didn't even know what this one looked like. Or sounded like. Or felt like. Or tas- you know what, forget that one. Not appropriate.

I flipped my cane into a more comfortable grip and started off, wrapping my left arm around my stomach to try and keep _some_ of the warmth in. Like, goddamn, it was freezing. It was July! How was this even possible! I suspect we were supposed to still be in bed at this hour and not even realize that it was anything but excellent outside, so this was only going to be a minor inconvenience for anyone unfortunate enough to have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. And also, evidently, anyone woken up by a deaf sociopath who wanted attention.

I sighed.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to judge. There was no indication given that Neo was anything but a lovely person, except for her nonsensical use of sarcasm considering she couldn't speak. She was polite, she was nice to the counselors, two things I can admit I wasn't quite so strong at just yet, but most importantly she had this sense of wonderment for being at the camp.

Even on yesterday's nature hike she kept running off to follow birds and Gwen kept having to flag her down and bring her back to the group so she wouldn't fall off of Eagle's Landing lookout. By the way, apparently a beautiful vista, but I didn't really see the appeal. Like, at all. Tally and I had sat on a rock off to the side and tried to enjoy the breeze while everyone else was looking for fossils and doing charcoal etchings and whatever, but I'd been hit in the face one too many times for my liking, so I'd just moped.

My cane hit something, making me stop dead. Something soft. Some _one_ soft.

"Oh, excuse me." I said to whoever it was sitting on the ground.

"Привет, Fox." came the soft, deeply accented voice from about my stomach-level.

"Oh, good morning, Tally. Didn't mean to bump into you." Speak of the devil and she shall appear. Not that I quite understood what she'd said, I understood that it was some kind of friendly greeting in Russian, probably a 'hello' or a 'good morning' as she always greeted myself and the others this way.

"Is no problem." she said, chuckling softly. "I not see you coming."

Fair.

"Are you sitting on the ground?" I asked, righting my back and trying to pop out a knot in my spine.

" _Da._ I found good rock for sitting."

"How do you determine good from bad rocks?"

"Is flat."

I chuckled, leaning on my cane for support. "Can I sit down with you?"

"Don't you have place to be?"

"After the stunt she just pulled in my tent? She can wait."

It was Tally's turn to laugh. "Here, take hand."

"I don't know where your hand is."

"I don't know where _your_ hand is. We are at impasse."

I fumbled for a moment before I found the gloved and surprisingly large hand of the other person, right about where I assumed it would be in front of me. She didn't jump at my touch, clearly used to it, unlike me who would very often jump at sudden contact with others, whether I knew they were there or not. I let her guide me down onto the rock, which was as frozen as the morning air around me. I gasped as the chill slapped me in the butt. At least the kink in my back was gone.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

The way her R's rolled was distinct. Very Eastern-bloc.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Why are _you_ up early?"

"I have to listen to radio broadcasts with Neo, says David."

"Oh."

"And yourself?" I asked, pushing for an answer to _my_ question, seeing as I had asked first.

"I meditating. Keeps mind at ease for day."

"What do you think about?"

"Past."

"Alright." I finished with. My school's therapist told me I should meditate to try and relax whenever I would feel down. I tried it a few times, usually to no avail. It would always just make whatever I was currently sour about push itself into the forefront of my thoughts and make me even more sour. Like a double-sour live-action reminder of the things I hated. They told me 'find somewhere comfortable to sit' and 'think about the things that make you happy' and 'try not to dwell on the past' and the usual textbook bullshit they push on the depressed kids before signing useless prescriptions that just made us feel worse. I kicked all that years ago.

"Actually, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

I pondered for a moment and let the unasked question hang in the air, collecting meaning. I sniffled a few times. The cold was starting to get to me. Neo better have had coffee waiting for me. Hot coffee.

"Do you... remember being able to see?"

There was a long pause. I felt immediate shame for asking. I wanted to apologize and take back my question, but she answered before I could take the chance.

"I do." she cleared her throat. "It was long time ago, so it gets hazy."

"Really?"

"Most of memories are seeing memories. I remember faces and sights. But they are now permanent. Memory stuck in two thousand five."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Every memory I have is from Russia, when I was little girl," she started, her tone reminiscent and softened. "All buildings are grey concrete, little sister is two years, mama and papa are much younger… sky is constant clouds. Is very dull. Everyone wear tracksuit to me."

"Hmm."

"Is not that this is _bad,_ it's all I know, so is real world for me. There not many meadows or flowers in Russia be like Sound Of Music lady in. So for me, sight memory is not best representation of real life."

She stumbled of the word 'representation', being far more syllables than she seemed comfortable with, but I was impressed by her determination.

"So, like, how do your current thoughts form? As visual facsimiles in your head?"

"Heh, not really." she sniffled, the cold clearly getting to her as well. "Is more like… I leave memory as memory. I become like you, make new memory with other senses. How feels, how smells. For me, colour is past. Shape, feeling, experience, that is present."

I think this was probably the best representation of how I felt at all times I had ever heard from someone else. Yeah, I didn't see the world around me, but to me that was always the case, so life is an experience with every other sense I have. And Tally was living that too. She'd had her share of vision, and she felt just as happy without it as she did with it. Maybe I needed to learn this zen ability. Maybe I was just bitter.

"I see."

"No, you don't."

I chuckled, leaning my head down and pressing the end of my cane to my forehead.

"Thanks, Tally."

"You have place to be, you go. I have memory to reflect on."

"I'll see you around."

I could feel her smirking at me and my lame attempt at humour. "До свидания, Little Fox."

"Yeah, yeah, _das vidanya_ to you to."

I stood up again with a pained groan, as my knees had locked in place for the _five minutes_ I'd been seated. To have a body part that deliberately doesn't work as intended seems like bad design to me. Though it's something I am acutely versed in. I trudged away, the chilly air having not let up since I'd woken up. This sweater was not good enough for this weather, I needed my jacket. But that was all the way back at my tent and I wasn't in any mood to go back.

Speaking of, I'd realized once again the circumstances of my rude awakening, and turned sour. Neo and her attitude. I swear, that woman was going to be the death of me. It's one thing to wake someone up by shaking their tent and rolling them around _in_ their sleeping bag, like my irritating 'friend' Scarlet is a fan of, but another to expose my delicate, frail skin to the morning air by unzipping the goddamn thing and letting me freeze. I mean honestly, what ever happened to the camp's 'Girls with Girls and Boys with Boys' tent rule? Did that mean _nothing_ to her? I suppose she'd probably have used the excuse of 'I never heard you say that' if confronted by a counselor anyways.

I found myself grinning under my facade as I approached the table where she was sitting. I wish I'd have known that, since I probably looked fairly stupid, walking silently up to someone in the early morning with a dumb smile on my face. I had to physically wipe it off my face, concealing it behind a 'runny nose' to not raise suspicion. Although even without sight I could _feel_ Neo pointing her smug bemusement at me as I sat down across from her.

"Good morning, Neo."

 _HELLO_ the machine beeped back.

I was a little startled by the volume to which she'd cranked it up to.

"Starting early, I see." I mumbled, folding up my cane and placing it on the bench next to me. She hadn't heard my comment, but I still felt a little self-conscious just in case she _did._ She was crafty, and I wouldn't put it past her to be able to read lips and just lie about it. I fumbled around on the table until I found my handheld. But before I had a chance to type out a message, she was on me like a gnat.

 _WHOS THE GIRL_

"What?"

I didn't even have my handheld in the right position, but I managed to type out _WHAT_ with fair haste.

 _ON THE ROCK_

I 'blinked' at her to show my confusion.

 _YOU MEAN TALLY_

 _YEAH IS SHE YOUR GIRLFRIEND_

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

 _NO_

 _WHY NOT SHES PRETTY_

She was almost typing faster then I could interpret without my conversion sheet. Almost. I was surprised by my ability to translate Morse in my head so fast, and equally impressed by her grasp of it as well, given we'd only been doing it a day. Lucky me then, that my plastic Braille-to-Morse page was sitting on top of the old radio box. I quickly grabbed it and set it down next to my handheld.

 _WHATEVER YOU SAY_

 _YOU DONT THINK SO_

Her questions were almost lost on me due to the lack of punctuation, but I persisted.

 _I DONT KNOW WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE_

 _SHES REALLY PRETTY_

I shrugged to emphasize my point.

 _IF YOU SAY SO_

 _EVERYONE SAY SO_

Suddenly, and without warning, something solid slid into my hand, making me jump. She'd thrown something at me. How rude. I reached forward to grab it, finding at my fingertips a bowl. Filled with what felt like leaves. I frowned.

 _WHATS THIS_

 _I MADE YOU BREAKFAST_

"You did what?" I pondered, reaching into the bowl and pulling out one of the small, crunchy things. My heart flipped. "Is this cornflakes?"

 _YES_

"Oh, so you _can_ understand me."

I fondled the edge of the bowl until I found the spoon she'd provided me with. Real silverware. I was impressed. I turned my attention back to the handheld.

 _YOU WOULDNT HAPPEN TO HAVE MILK_

She responded with two solid _thunks_ as she knocked on something on her side of the table, which slid over to my side next to the bowl. I reached for it. The bottle was unfamiliarly cold and damp, covered in condensation and clearly fresh from a refrigerator. Funny, I didn't think we were allowed personal electronics at this camp, and even if we were, who brings a _fridge?_ I opened the top, which was to my surprise a metal twist-off lid. I chuckled to myself as I poured the milk into my cereal. It was like the bottle David had brought me the previous morning.

"I can't remember the last time I had _bottled_ milk like this." I mumbled to myself, using one finger hooked over the edge of the bowl to determine how much was enough. I set the bottle down and put the cap back on.

 _THANK YOU_

 _YOURE VERY WELCOME_

I took a bite, trying not to seem as apprehensive as I really was. I still wasn't fully sure if what was in the bowl was cornflakes, having not actually tested one. Who knows, I could have just doused a bowl of guitar picks with coffee creamer and was about to suffer the consequences.

To my surprise, unfairly to Neo, the bowl was indeed filled with milk and cornflakes. _Frosted_ cornflakes, no less. Deliciously unhealthy.

"Oh, where were these yesterday, David?"

I basically dove face-first into my breakfast, both famished and thirsty from the night, and genuinely appreciative of Neo's memory of my favourite breakfast cereal. I suppose I should give her credit, since she watched me berate David the day before about it. Kinda hard to forget a miserable blind kid angry about his breakfast.

 _THANK YOU_ I repeated. I could feel her grin across the table

 _AGAIN NO PROBLEM YOU WANNA START_

 _SURE_

 _OK TURN ON THE RADIO_

"Uh…"

It dawned on me that I didn't actually know how. I heard an almost silent _tsk_ as she reached across the table and grabbed me by the wrist. Her small, delicate hands were extremely soft, but vice-like in their grip as she yanked my hand forward, mostly slamming it into the front of the radio box and into a large metal dial.

"Ow."

 _THIS DIAL CHANGES RADIO FROM LOCAL TO RECEIVING_

She slammed it into another dial.

 _THIS IS FOR VOLUME_

And another.

 _AND THIS IS FOR CHANNEL FINDING_

She let go of my hand, which dropped to the table before I could react. _Man,_ her hands were soft. That was pretty much all I got from that exchange, barely putting to memory the function of each dial.

 _OK WHEN DO WE START_

 _BROADCAST BEGINS AT SIX_

 _WHAT TIME IS IT NOW_

 _FIVE FIFTY SEVEN_

"Okay, I've got time to finish my breakfast."

I forced the rest of the bowl of cereal into my face as quickly as I could, not really minding what I looked like to Neo. She probably thought I was weird anyways, this wouldn't hinder that. I finished off the milk at the bottom of the bowl as well, because why would I waste perfectly good, sugary milk that was still chilled from the fridge. Seriously, still fascinated by the glass bottle milk at camp.

"Right, guess we should start."

I slid the empty bowl away and got comfortable, handheld under my left middle finger and braille sheet under my right. I reached over and flipped the first dial one heavy metallic click over to the transmitting and receiving setting. The static white noise from the speaker was piercing, making us both wince as I scrambled for the volume knob.

"Ow."

I gestured to the radio for her to find the station we were listening for. I remember David telling me the frequency to listen to, but without being able to see the readout, I was more than useless at finding it. If I remember right, we were looking for 162.425 megahertz, which was somewhere on the dial, but I didn't know if it was high, low, or in the middle. The dial clicked as Neo cycled through frequencies and power ranges, the hateful squeaking of the transceiver getting higher and higher as she dialed in on the correct frequency. Then, for a brief moment, she landed on it, and a flash of rapid code came through.

 _..LLOWSTONE NATIONAL PA…_

"That's it!" I blurted, reaching out for her hand on the dial. She clearly understood as she carefully rolled the static back. As she did, the radio static became the familiar rapid beats of Morse Code you'd commonly hear in old war movies, flickering so fast it was almost impossible to determine what was a dash and what was a dot. If you were an amateur. Which we were.

 _...ORTH TOWER NO 8 STOP DATE IS JULY 7 2013 TIME 0600 STOP FORECAST HIGH 62 LOW 40 STOP SUNRISE AT 0618 PEAK AT 1408 STOP..._

I had to take a moment to breathe from reading and interpreting so fast. It was making my head spin. The sound of Neo's pencil on her notebook was equally frantic, meaning at least we were in the same boat. I didn't have the luxury of writing down the translation, I just had to memorize it on the fly, but oh well. That's why there was two of us. I missed the part where the weather report told us about clouds and stuff, but we caught the tail end of it.

... _WIND CURR 18 MPH NW STOP END OF BROADCAST FULL STOP_

The radio went silent. Eerily silent. I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. Not even my Braille assignments were done at that speed, and we were _meant_ to interpret it quickly. The heavy metal dial was flipped back into the Local position very slowly, as my bench mate set her pencil down with two solid clicks.

 _WELL THAT WAS AN EXPERIENCE_

See, I assumed Neo typed quickly. But compared to what we'd just heard, she typed like a lethargic snail. And that made _me_ look like I was in a coma.

 _NO KIDDING_

 _SHOULD WE KEEP LISTENING_

 _ID GET LOST_

 _ME TOO_

"GOOOOD morning, campers!"

The two of us gasped, nearly leaving our spots on the bench. I hadn't heard David approach, and neither had Neo, as he'd appeared right behind her for his enthusiastic greeting. I don't know if Neo had ever been snuck up on like this before, as her gasp had actual _sound_ this time. Breathy, silent sound, but sound nonetheless. Her voice was airy and trapped in her throat, on account of not having a vocal tract that had ever been used or exercised, but it was distinctly feminine and very shallow, like that of someone with small lung capacity.

"What the hell, David!?" I demanded, 'glaring' over Neo's head to a spot I imagined him to be. "Don't sneak up on people like that! Especially not _us!_ "

"My apologies, guys, I'm just excited to see you up and socializing at this hour of the day! This is new for you!"

"B-but you gave me this job to do. You literally assigned me this so I'd _have_ to get up and socialize."

"But you're having fun with Neo, aren't you?"

I tried not to smile or flush. I failed.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, that's a drastic improvement over yesterday, I think."

"Shut up, David."

I could _smell_ his joy. Not a pleasant smell at six in the morning.

"So, were you two able to decode today's weather broadcast?"

"Uh, yeah, it's gonna be like sixy-two and kinda windy."

"Is it gonna rain? Be cloudy?"

"It was going too fast, I missed that part."

"Eh, that's okay. You'll get it tomorrow I bet."

"I'll certainly tr-"

"Wait a second, what do you have here?" he cut me off, mid-word. Rude.

"Excuse me?"

"Where did you get this bottle of milk?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

The milk bottle was picked up. The sudden change in his voice was an indication that maybe we weren't supposed to have it.

"This is Gwen's, from the counselor's cabin. How did you get this?"

Uh oh. I turned my face back across the table to Neo and grabbed my handheld again.

 _DID YOU STEAL THE MILK_

There was a pause from her end of the table. A lip was being bitten.

 _NO_

 _DID YOU BREAK INTO THE COUNSELORS CABIN_

Another fairly long pause. My tablemate was sweating.

 _NO_

Now, do I snitch or do I protect? Well, the obvious choice is to snitch and tell David the truth, because honesty is the best virtue a person can have. But this is _David_ we're talking about, of _course_ I'm gonna play dumb.

"It was on the picnic table when we got here, Gwen must have left it out all night. It was almost frozen when we got to it. I saw her eating a whole box of cookies last night as I was leaving the campfire."

"Ah, you're right, she does that. Sorry I accused, I mean nothing by it."

"Hey, don't worry about it."

He sighed that pleased-camp-counselor sigh, his hips most certainly occupied by his hands at this moment.

"Well, at the very least, I'm glad the two of you are getting along. It's so nice to see you making new friends, Fox."

"Kiss my ass, David."

"Ah, there's my favourite camper." he reached over the table and ruffled my hair. Normally I'd be upset, but I was certain I had legendary bedhead going on so it wasn't exactly gonna make it any worse. "Knew I'd find you in there somewhere. Keep at it, sport."

He turned and wandered off, probably back to the tents to wake the rest of us up for the day's activities. I was glad he was gone, as it meant I turn my attention back to Neo and the radio. I gingerly grabbed my handheld again.

 _YOURE A THIEF_

Her response was both instant and unexpected.

 _YEAH BUT A CUTE THIEF_

"Heh."

 _DISAGREE_

Neo proceeded to gasp again and make the most obvious and offended 'how dare you' face I'd ever heard.

 _RUDE_

I had to focus between laughs.

 _IM KIDDING SORRY_

 _TELL ME IM CUTE_

You don't understand just how audible a silent pout is until you experience it like I had to.

 _FINE YOURE CUTE_

Her smug smile was just as audible, and it permeated the air around me.

 _THATS WHAT I THOUGHT_

"This is ridiculous." I couldn't _not_ flush at her. I wasn't exactly up on my visual aptitude when it came to involuntary bodily actions, so I didn't know just how obvious my blush was. I hoped not _too_ bad.

 _WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO NOW_

She seemed to pause for effect most of the time. I'm not sure she realized just how annoying that was. Or maybe she did realize. This was Neo we're talking about.

 _I UNNO SKIP ROCKS_

The way that she could convey emotion and attitude through Morse Code was irritating. I didn't understand this woman. I mean, I don't understand most _people,_ but this seemed a special case. Didn't mean I didn't like her company, though.

 _SOUNDS GOOD TO ME_

And off we went.


End file.
